Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/201



2. Alluvial Formations.

At B. Macrevan, in the county of Antrim, half way between Glenevey and Lough Neagh, bituminous wood in disseminated pieces loosely imbedded in a loamy soil has been found.

Two shafts, each sixty feet deep, were formerly sunk to obtain it, but are now abandoned, the stock being exhausted. I however procured some specimens. The wood has evidently retained its fibrous texture, and burns with a vivid flame; specific gravity 1,124.

Not far from B. Macrevan, at B. Vorally, in Sandy Bay, there are still remaining on the shore, a few stumps of bituminized wood, the fissures of which are penetrated by silex, and sometimes even lined by quartz crystals. It does not flame, and its specific gravity, from the quartz it contains, amounts to 2,267.

It was once the general opinion that the waters of the lough had the property of petrifying, and that the quartz contained in the bituminous wood of Sandy Bay had been deposited from them. The experiments however, made by Mr. Tennant during his stay at Belfast, appear to discountenance that belief, since he found no traces of silica whatsoever in the water of the lough.